Preliminary observations regarding the expression of collagen triple helix repeat-containing 1 is an independent prognostic factor for Wilms' tumor.

Purpose: Overexpression of collagen triple helix-repeat containing 1 (CTHRC1) has been reported in many malignancies, where it plays an important role in tumorigenesis and progression. This study aimed to examine the clinical significance of CTHRC1 expression in patients with Wilms' tumor (WT).

Methods: The expression of CTHRC1, and its correlations with various clinicopathological parameters, was analyzed using immunohistochemistry in 42 WT tissues and 42 adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Samples from 8 patients with WT were examined using Western blotting and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlations between CTHRC1 expression and the prognosis of patients with WT.

Results: Immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and qRT-PCR revealed that the expression of CTHRC1 was significantly higher in WT tumors, compared to the expression in the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Furthermore, high tumor expression of CTHRC1 was associated with tumor size, clinical stage, histopathological type, and vascular invasion/metastasis. Moreover, the proportions of expressing cells in the WT specimens was higher than the proportions in the matched adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with high CTHRC1 expression exhibited a shorter survival, compared to patients with low CTHRC1 expression. Univariate and multivariate analyses also revealed that CTHRC1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival.

Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest that CTHRC1 is an independent prognostic factor, which may play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression, and may be a potential biomarker for WT.